thedefiant.io
Daily trading volume on Aptos-based decentralized exchanges hit a record on Wednesday, surpassing the $190 million mark for the first time in the network’s history. Meanwhile, the Layer 1 network’s total value locked (TVL) stands at $1 billion, roughly 23% below its all-time high of $1.3 billion reached in late 2024.
APT, the native token of Aptos, is up 14% in the past week, trading near $5.
The surge in trading activity comes shortly after Aptos Labs and Jump Crypto unveiled a new project called Shelby, designed for developers building storage-intensive apps such as video, social, or AI tools.
Shelby is a decentralized storage network that offers low-latency reads and on-chain data verification, designed to function like cloud storage but run on blockchain rails.
Additionally, Aptos is set to become the first non-EVM network to host Aave, DeFi’s largest lending protocol, after the proposal reached quorum and passed a community governance vote. A testnet version of Aave V3 is already live on Aptos, built using Move, a programming language first developed at Meta that underpins the Aptos network.
Finally, Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges, also enabled $USDT deposits and withdrawals on the Aptos network last week. That makes Aptos the third blockchain — after Ethereum and TRON — to support $USDT on South Korean exchanges.
Analysts at French blockchain firm Kaiko reported earlier this month that South Korea has become the second-largest crypto market globally — trailing only the U.S. — with trading volumes in Korean won reaching $663 billion, potentially opening up a significant opportunity for Aptos to capture market share.